Raise awareness about workers' mental health

Speakers at a seminar yesterday stressed the need for creating awareness among the employers about the mental health issues of their employees. Research Institute for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (RIAND) - Bangladesh arranged the seminar marking the World Mental Health Day at the Jatiya Press Club in the city.

"Every worker has fixed working hours and if a worker works beyond his/her capacity, he/she may face not only mental problems but also the physical problems which will kill labor-hour and ultimately cause national loss," said Health Secretary M Sirazul Islam.

Seminars and workshops should be arranged to create awareness among the employers about the issue which will benefit both the organization and the employees, he said. Psychologist Tapan Kumar Nath presented the keynote paper in the seminar.

In the keynote paper Tapan Kumar said building a healthy, workers-friendly workplace for the workers is a demand of time. He said it is important to formulate law and different policies to ensure good working environment for the workers.

"A good workplace will evaluate an employee properly and ensure favorable environment and the whole organization will enjoy the benefits," he said adding that a good environment improves the work quality. Referring to a study, Tapan said globally, more than 300 million people suffer from depression, the leading cause of disability while some 260 million are living with anxiety disorders and many of these people live with both. According to a recent research of World Health Organization (WHO) depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year in lost productivity, he added.